Inking the truth | Shivang Satya Gupta | Editor-in-Chief
The secret meeting between the National Security Advisors (NSAs) alongwith Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan in Bangkok came as a bolt out of blue for the trouble makers in India and Pakistan, by the superb diplomatic coup of sorts from Prime Minister Narendera Modi, pre-empting them of their arsenal against thaw in indo-Pak relations. The trouble makers must be beating their chest and thinking of fresh plans to thwart the warmth in Indo-Pak relations while back home another set of political trouble makers have also started finding faults with the move as they too were pre-empted of their chance to fish in the troubled waters between the two neighboring countries for their petty vote bank politics. While Congress has made-nobones-about their dislike for the Modi government stooping so low as to seek the help of enemy country to dethrone Modi, other political trouble makers have also started venting their frustration by negating the fresh thaw in the relations between the two countries calling it betrayal with the nation. Sometimes one wonders what has happened to the political lords of this country who can’t think beyond their vote bank politics and wash their dirty linen in front of the international fora. Opposing for the sake of opposition has become a habit of the political opponents in India even if that means denigrating their own country and undermining the programs and policies of their government at international levels which is unheard of in other mature and developed countries of the world. In such a case even Pakistan fares better than India and has been seen keeping quite when the image of the nation is at stake but here we have an opposition that has left behind the days of Nehru and Vajpayee when whole country including the bitter opponents would come together to pose a united face before the world when any international issue or foreign policy was being discussed. What we have seen since past two days is a strange reaction with some of the politicians first welcoming the move and later either backtracking or adding supplementary only to show that they exist as opposition. While there have been positive reactions from many quarters to the move of the central government to make a fresh beginning, the opposition has started asking irrelevant questions knowing well the government cannot answer them due to secrecy involved. As a matter of fact most of the political observers have hailed the move which has given a boost to India’s efforts to engage Pakistan in bilateral talks as well as making a way for Sushma Swaraj to attend the most crucial ‘Heart of Asia’ meeting which otherwise could have been spoilt due to sour relations between the two countries. Where is the question of ‘what has changed since September’ as these same set of politicians had mauled Modi for calling off the talks asking him to engage with Pakistan even if that means letting Pakistan talk to Hurriyat first. The intelligent move of the central government has denied Pakistan a chance to engage first with Hurriyat and talk directly besides giving Nawaz Sharrief a face saving formula back home where he faces many power circles out to throw him away. The opposition must understand that India’s image is growing at the international level and such diplomatic coups can only provide it a chance to pre-empt Pakistan and move ahead according to its own agenda rather than falling prey to the machinations of trouble makers who thwart Indo-Pak closeness whenever such a possibility is round the corner. It would be better to let the elected government act according to its own wisdom and not oppose it just for the sake of opposition to keep the relevance alive in public memory.
